POP Email – an acronym for Post Office Protocol (POP), this is the type of email used by the email software installed on your computer (eg. Outlook) to send and retrieve e-mail from your internet or email provider’s mail server. Your mail server receives and then holds all of your incoming mail. When prompted, your email software connects to the mail server, retrieves all new messages, and puts them in your inbox. You can also have this incoming email automatically routed to a designated folder if you have setup filters for this (use Outlook’s Rules Wizard for this). For instance, you can have all emails from mailings lists you’re on automatically go into a specified folder. This helps keep your inbox free of clutter, allowing you to focus on client and prospect emails.
It’s a good idea to configure Outlook to periodically (eg. every 5 minutes) check the mail server for new messages. Doing this will also send out to the mail server any new messages you’ve created and sent without causing much disruption.
Read Receipt: this is a handy feature allowing you to confirm someone has received and read an email. We have all sent off e-mails only to find out later they weren’t received, and vice versa. When the Read Receipt feature is used when your recipients open your email they get a small pop up window asking them to confirm they have received and read the message. Note the recipient doesn’t have to respond to the Read Receipt, even if they’ve received and read the email, so it’s not a foolproof way of knowing your messages have been read. You should only use Read Receipts sparingly. For example, use them for important emails such as sending a contract or other legal document or for time-sensitive matters. Don’t use Read Receipts for emails to your mailing list. Your recipients will probably just find them annoying and invasive in these situations and may even unsubscribe as a result.
Recall Message: ever sent a message you wish you could un-send? Maybe you sent it to the wrong person, or hadn’t finished it and accidentally hit the send button or some other flub. Maybe one of your kids got onto your computer and started sending messages. The Recall Message feature allows you to ask your recipient via email to allow the message to be returned to you unread.
